Presidential Fashions...

It seems all the fashion these days to describe ones perfect presidential candidate in a blog, and then bemoan mightily the shortage of such paragons of common sense and vision. Might as well join the fashion in my own small way...

As is usual with such things, I've not yet found a critter that really fits my ideals, but in the meanwhile, I've found a couple of folks that strike me as either evilly amusing to contemplate as victors, or of the "well, god knows they are better than the current players" candidate. We'll get back to that.

But first, what I'm looking for....

In no particular order, I'm looking for a candidate that supports:

1. Repealing gun control statutes.
2. Recognizes that Prohibition didn't work the first time and spruced up with a pretty monicker "War On Drugs", rewound, and played again it doesn't work work any better - figures real crime is more important than grand gestures.
3. Favors gay marriage on the grounds that which consenting adults sleep with each other is nobodies business, and that in that context, supporting committed relationships (and organized dissolutions thereof) is in the best interests of society - fiscally, morally, and just in cutting down the drama by providing a *TEMPLATE* for folks to at least start from rather'n the current "make it up from scratch as you go along" bit.
4. If we're going for the gusto, a candidate that actively promotes gun ownership as roughly equivalent to fire extinguishers for law abiding citizens thrust into bad, bad, situations.
5. Opposes all affirmative action, but supports absolutely bloodthirsty legislative retribution against folks who muck about with the necessities of life on a discriminatory basis...with a rather high threshold set for the excitement to begin.
   
6. Supports requiring balanced budgets at all levels of government, and reigning in the ability of government to dig itself deeper into debt.
7. Supports reducing the number of redundant, counterproductive, silly, excessive, and just plain stupid number of statutes on the books in hopes of reducing prison populations.
8. Supports long prison terms for actual crimes of violence where someone has initiated the aggressive use of force against another party.
9. Supports strong borders, and has the intestinal fortitude to do what it takes to establish and maintain them. Fences are silly. Land mines are economical and really quite effective.
10. Quits screwing around in Iraq, and does it right - i.e., serious increases in force presence, decentralization of infrastructure, and giving our troops the support they need to do their jobs.
11. Is willing to consider doing something swift, effective, and educational about Iran, Venezuela, and N. Korea...either directly, or indirectly.
    
12. Recognizes that Beijing is far from our very bestest buddy, and takes China seriously as a risk.
13. Supports the Bill of Rights - all ten amendments.
14. Supports the color-blind, gender-blind, orientation-blind, legislation. (I.e., when handing out benefits or penalties, we really don't give a damn about those issues).
15. Basic health care. I don't see paying for most plastic surgery, or other generally elective surgeries...but folks do better at holding jobs and paying taxes when they aren't sick/dying/homebound.
16. A persons body, and what goes on inside it, belongs to that person. Period, full stop. As a matter of personal ethics that I am deeply unsure should become law, once a pregnancy becomes an independently viable critter (humanity generally occurs and boneheadedness recedes somewhat around 25 or 30, a different argument), abortion then starts seeming awfully similar to homicide. I'm a guy...so figure my role is to exercise restraint to the best of my ability and let the folks whose bodies are actually involved be the dominant force in these arguments.
    

I could go on...but I suspect the general idea gets across. It's not really likely I'm going to find my perfect candidate that will even-handedly rain political trauma upon the control freaks of both the left and the right in equal and unlimited measure.

That said, a victorious GOP ticket bearing Colin Powell/Condoleeza Rice would give me a certain quietly evil joy...as the sound of spontaneous intellectual combustion among the power elites of both the GOP and the Dem's would warm the cockles of my heart...I'm less certain that such a victory would be either good for the country, or the candidates, however. I do think it would be a painfully effective counterploy to an Obama candidacy.

As I've said previously, I support at a semi-practical level a Ron Paul candidacy for the Presidency in 2008...as being least offensive to me of the candidates presented thus far....

Realistically, if the Dem's can find a candidate that's pro-gay, pro-gun, pro-fiscal responsibility...oh, wait...that combination pretty well excludes all their current crop of potentials...never mind.

Perhaps if the GOP can find a "leave the gay folk the hell alone", pro-gun, pro-fiscal responsibility candidate...well, that at least rules out McCain...and most other GOP wannabe's I've heard of....

Crud. Another "least of the evils" election.